Chestnut 



273 



about 0.59. It is very durable in the soil and is esteemed for fence-posts and rail- 

 road ties. The fruit is collected and sold in the markets of the south and west, 

 but seldom reaches those of the northeast. It is a beautiful small tree and deserves 

 more frequent planting in parks. 



A remarkable specimen from Eagle Rock, Missouri has large leaves as 

 coarsely toothed as those of the Chestnut. 



2. CHESTNUT — Oastanea dentata (Marshall) Borckhausen 

 Fagus Castanea dentata Marshall. Castanea vesca americana Michaux 



This stately tree is frequent throughout eastern North America from 

 Maine to Ontario and Michigan, southward to Delaware and thence along the 

 mountains to northern Alabama and Mississippi, and to Indiana and Arkansas. 

 It is tall and slender in the forests, but broad and spreading, with somewhat 

 drooping branches, forming a round top often 30 meters across when growing 

 in the open. Its maximum height is about 30 meters, with a trunk diameter of 

 4 meters. 



The bark is from 2.5 to 5 cm. thick, deeply and narrowly furrowed into nearly 

 flat somewhat oblique ridges and divided into 

 small, irregular, close scales of a dark brown 

 color. The twigs are slender, round, sUghtly 

 hairy, becoming smooth, and change through va- 

 rious shades of yellow and reddish to dark brown. 

 There is no terminal bud ; the winter buds are 

 all lateral, ovoid, sharp-pointed, 6 mm. long, 

 their thin scales bright brown. The leaves are 

 thin, narrowly elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate or ob- 

 long-lanceolate, I to 3 dm. long, taper-pointed, 

 gradually narrowed to the wedge-shaped base, 

 coarsely and sharply toothed on the margin, 

 smooth on^both sides, dull yellowish green and 

 shining above, paler and prominently veined be- 

 neath; the leaf-stalk is yellow, stout and angular, 

 I to 2 cm. long; the stipules ovate-lanceolate, 12 

 mm. long, soon faUing off. In autumn the foli- 

 age turns bright yellow. The flowers appear in June or July after the leaves are 

 quite fully expanded; they are strong scented, in numerous upright or spreading 

 catkins, the staminate 1.5 to 3 dm. long, the flower-clusters crowded on a stout, 

 green axis. The upper catkins are slender, 5 to 12 cm. long; their upper stami- 

 nate flowers are smaller than those of the lower catkins and soon fall away from 

 the persistent axis, toward the base of which are borne the 2 or 3 stalked 

 globular involucres, 8 mm. in diameter, armed with crowded stiff spines, and 

 enclosing 2 or 3 pistillate flowers. The fruit ripens in September and October; 



Fig. 231. — Chestnut. 



